


The Xanathos Gambit

by andamiro (arysthaeniru)



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Corporate Espionage, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-13 01:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2132004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysthaeniru/pseuds/andamiro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inui makes a living out of hacking Atobe Corp's firewalls for information. It's not an easy job, but it's an interesting one and quite stable. At least, until Inui is deeply embroiled in the machinations between Atobe Corp and Rikkai Industries....</p><p>[Published Dec 27th 2013 for Secret Santa dA Exchange]</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Xanathos Gambit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OtakuAngelD](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtakuAngelD/gifts).



It wasn’t often that Inui Sadaharu was rendered completely dumbfounded, but this was one of those occasions. How Renji had managed to debug the code that he’d been working on for 7.876 days, in just 1.5 minutes...it was illogical. Absolutely and utterly illogical.

“You were missing a for loop in the bait-and-trap block, Hakase.” said Renji, dryly, as he got up from the swivel chair. “And a semi-colon on line 567, as you were wondering.” 

“But the compiler didn’t find it. It has worked perfectly for me before.” said Inui, sitting back down at the row of computer screens and adjusting his glasses. 

“Compilers are prone to errors like that. Sometimes you just have to return to the code and retry.” said Renji, with a small laugh, as he crossed back over to his own station, just opposite to Inui’s. ‘“Did they not teach you that at coding school?”

Inui didn’t turn around. “You know perfectly well that I taught myself how to code, Kyouju.” He’d never had a chance to finish high school and get access to the kinds of information that would have helped him code. Online tutorials and whatever he could pick up, had been his only guide. 

He’d always been a fast learner. 

“You’d better work quickly, Hakase, the deadline for your assignment ends in 1.34 hours. If you are late, there is no doubt that Yukimura will come up with a humiliating punishment for you. Remember the beach volleyball incident after you screwed up?” said Renji, as he opened the thick tome on his desk and started to read. 

Inui pouted, as he ran a hand through his short spiky hair. “No need to remind me, Kyouju. I’ll get it done. I’m not a n00b.”

He cracked out his knuckles and ran the programme, crossing his fingers together in anticipation. Thanks to Renji’s improvements, there was now a 95.87% chance of the code working and finally being able to break into Atobe Corp’s database. 

Break into was a little bit of an exaggeration though. It was more like sending a letter through a tiny gap in the wall’s foundations.

Atobe Corp’s firewalls were like the Berlin Wall. Getting over it was easy if you smashed it, but any subtle ways, that didn’t involve you getting caught and being accused of corporate espionage...well, that was a different matter. But that was why Yukimura Seiichi even hired a team of hackers to work for him. They were the best.

Even if most of them had been severely illegal beforehand. Still, Yukimura hardly cared about that. Whatever got the job done. 

Inui’s code-combos, usually known as Juicers or Waterfalls, were rarely subtle though. They worked faster than anyone else’s codes...but were more like cannonballs, rather than the liquids they were named after. It had taken some learning to get anywhere near the level of finesse that Yanagi Renji, the head hacker of their department, and his old childhood friend, applied in every form of his life.

Sometimes, Inui was envious of his best friend. He slid through life easily, like a knife through butter, while Inui stumbled through it, like a giant sloth through a thick savannah. He could only dream of owning that sort of grace. Being close to Renji’s grace was a gift in itself, though. 

He was drawn from his reverie as his computer started beeping. “Fuzzleshiz.” he swore, as his fingers started typing overtime. He’d disturbed one of the honeypots in Atobe’s system. How Atobe had managed to get a honeypot that blended in that well was astounding. No, it must have been careless, stupid mistake on his part! He hadn’t hit a honeypot since he was thirteen and just getting into the world of hacking. 

He thanked his lucky stars that he no longer made typos in his writing and that his touchtyping was perfect as he struggled to try and make the honeypot believe that he was just one of the employees trying to access the finance records. 

After 20.34 painstaking seconds of waiting, the honeypot accepted it and moved on, leaving him slumped back in his chair with relief. 

“Another mistake?” asked Mizuki, with a sneer, as he went to refill his decorated fine-bone china cup with his usual lapsang and rosehip tea blend. Mizuki was hardly their most successful hacker when it came to stealth either, but his phishing abilities, from his time as a criminal, were absolutely legendary. He could convince anyone of anything. He’d even managed to convince someone that their own identity was wrong. 

Inui just smirked. “It’ll never beat the fiasco with Fuji.” The perfect case of friendly fire; Mizuki had tried to scam Fuji Syuusuke out of his money, to earn his own place in Yukimura’s company, without realizing that Fuji was one of Yukimura’s best hackers, and had failed miserably. Still, his talent had shone through, despite the crushing defeat to Fuji. 

Mizuki winced, looked around for Fuji, then scowled. “Just you wait. I’ll beat him. Just watch me completely SQLi him. I’ll make his name dirt. The best hacker will be Mizuki Hajime! Just you see!” He collapsed into a fit of evil laughter and Inui sighed. 

This was hardly unusual for Mizuki, this happened on an average of 8.76 times a day. Especially when it came to SQLi’s, since those were Fuji’s best tricks. Fuji’s Hakugei, Tsubame Gaeshi and Higuma Otoshi code combos that he injected into websites could completely change the purpose and direction of the database. It was one of Mizuki’s dearest ambitions to beat him in the same way and he was doing pretty well in imitation. 

Despite those successes.....sometimes, he really questioned Yukimura’s hiring ability. 

“Do you need me to get rid of him, desu?” whispered young Dan Taichi, a hacker fresh out of high school, (perhaps one of the only non-criminals in the team) as he shoved up his headband. He couldn’t have been louder if he’d shouted. 

“Appreciated, Taichi.” said Inui, with a small smile. At least someone was normal around here. Even if Dan’s speech quirks could get irritating, he was a friendly person and ideal for late-night hackathons. 

As Dan steered away Mizuki towards the beverage station, Inui turned back to the code and stared. It had finished while he’d been distracted. He quickly copied the information to his desktop, a disk-drive, a separate hard-drive, his phone and his Nintendo DS, just in case. He never liked to store information in just one place, in case it got corrupted or he did something to it by accident. 

He ran it through a programme he’d created, to just pick out the information that he wanted and leant back in his chair, chugging down some Inui Juice, with a small smile reaching his lips. 

“78.5% that you actually managed to make it work.” stated Renji, with a soft smile, as he looked up from his book. “Nice job, Hakase.” 

“Thank you, Kyouju.” he said, with a grin. “Couldn’t have done it without you.” 

“You would have.” said Renji, as he leant over the cubicle partition, “But you probably wouldn’t have made it in the time limit.”

“True.” said Inui, with a shrug. “Have you got a meeting with Yukimura soon?”

“Ahh, in twenty minutes, at 2:43pm, precisely.” said Renji, with a nod. It was like Yukimura to set it to an odd time, just to annoy people. He was all about making people react. “You want me to pass on the disk drive to him with the information, don’t you?” said Renji, holding open a hand.

“Mmm. The hard drive too.” said Inui, passing them over. “Tell him to look after them, they’ve got some pretty awesome information there. 

“As always, Hakase.” said Renji, as he got up, with a light wink. Inui sighed pitifully as he watched him go. He hated to see him leave, but he loved watching him go. 

“Are you going to do anything about your pathetic crush?” asked Mizuki, as he leaned over into his desk, holding a steaming cup of tea. 

Inui started and frowned, as he pushed up his glasses. “Didn’t Taichi get rid of you?”

Mizuki sniffed. “He got me more tea. There’s a difference.” 

“I wasn’t aware there was one.” said Inui dryly. “What do you want?”

“For you to do something about your crush on Yanagi.” said Mizuki. “Watching you is a sorry sight.”

“I--I don’t have a crush on him!” stammered Inui, as he shoved his glasses upwards again. 

“Yes. And I social engineer using skiddies. Get somewhat into the real world since it’s clear you’ll never reach there entirely.” Mizuki placed his cup down, rolling his eyes. Inui just frowned. Even he wouldn’t accuse Mizuki of skiddie usage. That was like showing you were a newbie. Most scripts had the seal or signature of a particular hacker on them and using another hacker’s code was like asking to be laughed at. Codes were a personal thing.

Unless you were Niou or Kabaji. But they were good at imitating other hacker’s movements and used it to throw off the rest of the world. They made their own code, but put the seal of another on it and made it seem like that hacker’s work to avoid credit. 

“Look. I know you like the state of denial. It’s all fuzzy and cozy and easy for cowards to hide in. But the only way to make those twisted fantasies that you have– and I know you have, because you’re human– is by acting.” iterated Mizuki, with a shaking finger.

Inui blinked. Why Mizuki was giving him relationship advice, he wasn’t sure. They weren’t exactly friends. The closest they really got to interacting was the snarking they did about incompetent hackers in the criminal world. “Acting out what?”

“Do something! Not act a play, imbecile.” exclaimed Mizuki, rolling his eyes. “Urgh, forget it, you plebian. You’re hopeless. My advice would be wasted on you.” 

Inui watched Mizuki sashay away, feeling more than slightly confused. It wasn’t often that Inui was confused and that was twice in one day. Truly, today was a day of strange occurrences. 

“As much as I hate to agree with Mizuki....he has a point.” said Fuji, leaning into the cubicle, quickly followed by Saeki.

“Mmmhmm, it’s kinda pathetic. How are you going to get Yanagi-san to be your boyfriend if he doesn’t even know that you like him?” asked Saeki, kindly. 

“What if you’re all wrong?” asked Inui. “The chances of my liking Renji as more than a friend are 24%.” he said, calmly. 

“We ran one of our most successful hacking ventures on a chance of 15% once, remember?” asked Fuji, lightly. “Nobody expected Dan to be able to beat Shishido’s firewalls, but he did.”

“You can beat your odds very easily, with some effort. Probabilities change. Besides....” Saeki said, leaning.

“We think you’re lying to yourself.” finished Fuji and Inui frowned. He hadn’t quite realized how disconcerting that was on the receiving end. He and Renji often did that when they were particularly excited about something. Fuji and Saeki certainly hadn’t flaunted their talent before. He wondered whether they’d recently mastered it, or it was something they’d been able to do for a while (he wouldn’t put it past them to have been able to do it since birth).

“I also believe that you are wrong.” said Inui, coolly. “Now sorry, I have to get back to coding. We can talk about this in approximately 4.5 hours.” he said, lying through his teeth. He had nothing to do, since he’d just handed in his assignment to Renji. 

By Saeki’s skeptical look and Fuji’s dangerous smile, they’d figured it out as well, but they left him alone for now. Inui decided to go back to working on Waterfall, making it faster than before. 

xxxxx

“So he actually finished?” asked Yukimura, “All by himself, I expect?” he asked, lightly. The late sunlight trickled in through the windows, illuminating the area behind Yukimura, tossing his sleek shoulders into light, but his face into murky shadow. 

Yanagi didn’t flush, because he’d known Yukimura long enough to not do so. That was like admitting defeat to the lion and asking for the lion to eat you. “Of course not.” he said coolly. “Because that is what you wanted to see. If I would help him or not.” 

Well, he hadn’t known that _before_ or he wouldn’t have, but he knew now. 

“Renji, when are you just going to tell him that you like him? He’s too shy to say anything himself.” asked Yukimura, with a sigh, leaning forward, so Yanagi could make out the individual features of his friend’s face. 

“I’m waiting for the right chance. I’ll know it when I see it.” said Yanagi, firmly, shutting his mouth. He knew that Sadaharu was attracted to him and well, he’d be lying if he said that he didn’t like him back. No one understand him quite like Sadaharu did. 

Yukimura looked like he was about to say something further, when his computer beeped. He scanned through the information and his pale paled rapidly. “Forget everything I just said, Renji.” 

Yanagi blinked. “What happened, Seiichi?” he asked, his voice concerned. 

“We’re going to have to advance with the ideas I was telling you about earlier. Atobe’s overstepped his boundaries. I’ve tolerated him so far, but I want his company turned to ashes, Renji.” he said, his voice cold and calm. 

“Those...plans...” said Yanagi, with a grimace. “Seiichi...those were extreme. Those were...taken from an unfavourable source. Things...things are going to be explosive. You’re going to cause controversy if it gets out.” 

“It won’t get out.” said Yukimura, standing up and handing Renji back the flash-drive. “Give these to Niou, tell him to corrupt them using Inui’s signature. I’ll incorporate it into the system tomorrow morning. Tell him I want it done by then.”

Yanagi’s face tightened. “Yes, Seiichi.” he said, feeling his heart shrivel just a little. “But Seiichi...he might never forgive me. Or you.”

Yukimura’s face looked genuinely sorrowful. “I’m sorry, Renji. But this must be done. And his involvement is inevitable. You can’t tell him anything.”

Yanagi sighed, took them and started to leave. “Wait...Seiichi. What did Atobe do to warrant this?”

“He got Sanada.” was Yukimura’s only response and Yanagi only nodded in comprehension. Sanada’s investment would have made the company soar. Now that Atobe had it...well... it was inconsequential. Atobe’s company wouldn’t be standing by the end of this. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Inui’s mouth parted in utter shock. There was no mistake about what was happening. The information that he’d stolen from Atobe yesterday...was corrupting their own system. He wasn’t in the habit of being surprised, but that was the second time in two days that he was literally reduced to gaping in shock.

“What is going on?” he asked, softly. He made to sit down at the computer to try and stop the damage to their own servers that...his info was doing, but was instantly stopped by Mizuki, with a disgusted look. “I think you’ve done enough, Inui-kun.”

“Geez Inui, at least test your stuff before you hand it into Yukimura to incorporate into the system.” said Niou, rolling his eyes as he, Fuji and Saeki all started to counter hi— _the bug_. Inui was left gaping at the big screen in their room and point out where the virus was weak, in a weak, defeated voice.

The thing was....he _had_ tested it before he’d handed it into Yukimura. So, what had just happened?

They stopped it quickly, but the damage was done. The servers were instantly weaker and almost everyone was shooting him annoyed glances about the overtime they were sure to work. And Kuwahara was shooting him a sympathetic look from where he was waiting at the lift. 

“Sorry buddy. Yukimura wants to see you.” he said, with an apologetic smile.

Inui nodded. He bore no hard feelings towards Kuwahara for doing his job. As he rose up in the lift...Inui could see no way to keep himself with a job. Every possibility he saw, ended with his firing. 

And that was scary. He’d been working here for something close to five years, ever since Renji had rescued him from the world of organized crime....to well, corporate crime. Still, it was a legitimate job in many ways. 

The ride seemed endlessly long. The trilling lift music, which usually amused him, seemed unusually sinister and the air-vents made sounds like soft sighs were drifting through from another world. Jackal’s silence only made Inui more nervous and he had never experienced a longer two minutes than at that moment. 

His hands were shaking a little as he came to Yukimura’s office, so Inui shoved them in his pockets as he walked into the room. but he had no doubt that Yukimura knew that his hands were shaking. 

“Inui-kun.” said Yukimura, pleasantly, though there was an edge of brittleness to his voice. “Have a seat.”

“I..don’t know what happened.” said Inui, quietly. “I apologize.” But that wouldn’t be enough he knew. Even if he groveled, there wouldn’t be results.

“I know you didn’t mean it. You’re not a malicious person.” said Yukimura, immediately, as he leant back in his chair. “But the fact remains, that you work in a job where even one mistake can lead to destruction. You’ve made two.”

Inui nodded, feeling utterly miserable. This combined with the first failure....he closed his eyes together momentarily. 

“I’m sure you understand that I have to do this. I cannot afford to have any mistakes, since that will endanger all of the others at this company.” said Yukimura, as he laced his fingers together and leaned on them, a matter-of-fact smile on his face. 

Inui nodded. “I understand, 100%. I cannot stay here.”

Yukimura smiled sadly. “You’ll have until the end of the day to take your things. Your severance pay will be deposited in your account by tomorrow morning. Feel free to ask anyone to help you pack. There’ll be a car to drop you back at your home.”

Inui nodded and got up. He knew his cue. “I apologize once more.” he said, with a small nod. 

Yukimura just smiled at him and waved him off. His face was obscured by the rays of the sun from behind him, silhouetting him like a cardboard cut-out.

Kuwahara didn’t accompany him down and Inui was fine with that, since it allowed him time to think about what he’d be allowed to take. His laptop, his DS, his hard drive...probably some of his files and programmes.

...he still had access to the private folders of the company. That would be removed by tomorrow, but if he felt vengeful....

Inui shook his head as he exited the lift and started to pack the pictures and papers scattered over his desk and cubicle walls. It wasn’t Yukimura’s fault. The company boss _had_ to fire Inui. Besides, selling to the other side would endanger all of his friends here. And Inui didn’t feel willing to do that. 

He set his disk-drive to only copy files that were his, and he started to pick up the coding books from here and there. Renji wasn’t at his desk, and his best friend’s desk was 45% too clean for Renji to actually be working today. There was a 67.5% that Renji was at a customer’s office today. 

It was a shame that he wasn’t here, but it was probably for the best that Renji found out about this from another source. Inui didn’t think he could take the sadness from losing the job that Renji had helped him acquire and seeing Renji’s disapproving look for losing it. 

There wasn’t much that he kept at work, when it came down to it. A few books, some photos and papers, and his various electronic devices that held his data and his code. There were of course, the unspoken memories and good times...but Inui had to force himself to think without emotion, or he’d never be able to walk away. 

He smirked slightly, as one of Yukimura’s parting commands hit him. Yukimura had told him to feel free to ask someone to help him...but Yukimura had also known that Inui’s pride wouldn’t allow him to do it. In essence, that little jab had been an order to not bother the others. Fine. Inui was happy to comply. 

He took one last glance at what had been his temporary home for the past five years. Saeki and Fuji were lightly teasing Dan who was turning more red by the second. Mizuki was tapping away at his computer, twirling his hair absently from his comfy office-chair. Niou was sprawled out on the floor, his laptop in front of his face, as he coded on his stomach. Jackal was texting by the lift door where he usually stood and the other technicians were laughing and exchanging quips, just living life. The only person missing was Renji. 

Inui smiled sadly, before heaving the stuff up in his arms and walking away from it. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Inui adjusted his glasses and glanced at the screen disinterestedly. There was no particularly eye-grabbing news today. He should have been pleased, because it meant that the infected information had been successfully quarantined. Rikkai’s collapse would have been a front-pager, after all. 

Still...a part of him felt that because it felt that his world had fallen apart, the rest of the world should also suffer. Stupid of him. He wasn’t the hero of this story. It had been arrogance to believe that he was.

He shut the screen of his computer and glanced back at the CV. He’d finished updating it last night...but he wouldn’t be able to get another job with another company for six months. Every Rikkai Contract promised that. It was clever and a good way to stop ideas being exchanged.

Suddenly, a warbling version of ‘ _she blinded me with science_ ’ started playing and Inui scrambled to find his phone. He pressed the answer button, two microseconds later than he usually did and sighed. “Renji?” he asked, his voice soft. 

“Where are you right now?” came the urgent voice of his usually calm friend. 

“At...home.” said Inui, carefully. “Renji, what’s wrong?”

“And you’re doing what?” asked Renji. 

“Staring at my clock and talking to you.” answered Inui, without hesitation, before sighing. He couldn’t read Renji as well, over the phone, but... “You’re watching me to check this, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that’s correct, Hakase. From outside your house through the camera system.” said Renji, not sounding apologetic, at all. Inui just sighed, hung up, got up out of his chair and pulled open the door. 

Renji, who had evidently been walking down the corridor, didn’t even look up from his tablet as he walked into the apartment. His timing was as perfect as ever, to the very second that Inui would open the door, so he didn’t even have to slow his stride. 

Inui just chuckled and shut the door. “Would–”

“Would you like some matcha tea or darjeeling tea, is what you were going to say, yes?” said Renji, with a self-satisfied smirk. 

“There was a 98.7% chance that you’d take the opportunity to sound like a douchebag, instead of a friend.” said Inui, with a low laugh. Damn, but he’d be lying if he said that Renji’s predictions weren’t a turn-on. 

Renji looked mock-hurt, before looking a little worried “Niou told me about what happened...”

“I don’t know how.” interrupted Inui. “What you helped me write was the final version of the code and the information I collected didn’t corrupt my devices. I have no idea why it would corrupt Yukimura’s drives.”

Renji’s face grew serious. “Promise me that you didn’t corrupt his drives intentionally, Sadaharu.”

Inui nodded. “I promise. I had no reason to do it.” 

“And you’re not a spy for Atobe’s company?” asked Renji again and Inui glared.

“Of course not, Kyouju. Do you doubt me so?”

“There have been people who were spies for Atobe before.” said Renji, with a sigh. “Even close friends. Seiichi gets more paranoid by the day. I do not truly know why he fired you. there was no reason.”

“But I made two mistakes.” defended Inui

“Which usually means suspension, not firing. He only fires people he suspects are spies. But he’s never wrong.” said Renji, with a sigh. “This is the first time in almost fifteen years that Seiichi has been wrong about on his corporate decisions.” 

Inui blinked. It was rare for Renji to ever say the word ’never’. In the world of probabilities and maths, the words and always and never were dangerous words. They were usually wrong...and he and Renji didn’t make a habit of being wrong. 

Renji paused then looked at Inui, squarely. “The programme and information, you still have it?”

Inui nodded. “In my Nintendo DS.” he said, as he got up to pick it up from the shelf, where it was 12.3 cm from the edge. “Your laptop will run it better. It has 9GB RAM, does it not?”

Renji nodded. “8.98GB to be precise, since some of the RAM is taken by the laptop even being on.”

Inui nodded and handed the SD Card from his DS over to Renji, who’d now taken a seat on Inui’s bruised, battered couch. He’d written over the Smash Bros game for this information. He hoped that Renji appreciated that. Judging by the small smirk, he seemed to notice. 

“Just recover the information. If the information is truly corrupted, we can run the programme again.” said Inui, as he leant over the back of his coach, to peer at the laptop screen from Renji’s shoulder. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep completely calm if he sat next to his best friend in such close proximity. 

“Nothing.” said Renji, as he downloaded the information onto his computer. “Nothing happened. What–”

He paused at the moment, since a window randomly opened on the screen. “This didn’t happen last time.” said Inui, grimly. 

A blinking cursor showed up on the window and slowly, a typed message started spilling it’s way across the page. 

“That...is not fair.” said Inui, with a frown. “That’s not even supposed to be possible! That’s a super hi-tech virus but it takes ages to make. Who the fuck has the time and money–”

“Atobe.” said Renji grimly, as the message finished. “That’s who.” 

“ _Inui Sadaharu, you might be wondering why I’d take the time and expense to achieve this. But there’s something you have that I need and that Yukimura wasn’t utilising. I left it well alone for five years, but since Yukimura has done nothing, I assumed it was my turn. If you know what I’m talking about, contact me. If not, stay ignorant. I don’t need useless people._ ” read Inui slowly. “What?”

Renji shrugged. “Do you know what he’s talking about, Sadaharu?”

Inui was about to deny...when he stopped. Oh. Was it....was it when he was a criminal hacker? When he’d gotten involved with the Okinawan yakuza? He’d gotten hold of a programme there....but it was deleted. Inui was sure that it was deleted. He didn’t have the programme anymore. Just a vague memory from five years ago. 

“I might, yes.” said Inui, with a frown. “I’ve told you about how I worked for yakuza before. You took me away from that, saved me from it.” He was grateful for it every day. “But...there was a programme that I was supposed to try and make for the yakuza. Atobe could be talking about that.”

Renji seemed to be studying his face. “You just don’t know how he knows about it.” he said, predicting Inui’s mind again. 

“I didn’t even tell you, so I don’t know how Atobe would know.” said Inui, with a sigh.

Renji frowned then he gasped. “I know why.” he said, looking like he’d had his Archimedes moment. “Atobe just recently hired a man called Hiyoshi Wakashi. And guess where Hiyoshi Wakashi was previously hired.”

Inui just smiled wearily. He didn’t need to guess. He remembered Hiyoshi. Kite had been proud of Hiyoshi’s abilities back then. “Then it explains it.”

Renji looked at him for a bit, his eyes obviously working through something. “Grab your racket, Sadaharu. Let’s go play a game, before we make any decisions.”

It was an unspoken agreement between them that this problem was between the both of them, not just Inui. Inui knew that this sort of closeness should only come from love, from what else he’d seen. But Renji seemed in a class above him, untouchable. His love was unrequited...and he would be content with being Renji’s friend. 

“You’ll borrow the Yonex?” he asked, as he got up from where he leant behind Renji and his laptop.

“Of course.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yanagi decided, that after this was over, Yukimura owed him an oscar for acting. That had been one of the most difficult things to coordinate and he was still surprised that Sadaharu hadn’t managed to catch his deception. 

The timing had needed to be perfect, since the message had to be made from his computer’s hard-drive and be triggered by the running of Inui’s uncorrupted programme. And he had nowhere near the resources that Atobe would have had, so it had been difficult. 

He could sense how nervous Sadaharu had been the whole through the conversation...and however illogical it had been, Yanagi had been fighting the urge to just reach up and kiss him through the entire conversation.

But he didn’t have time for indulgences. Not anymore. He dived for Sadaharu’s phone and sent a quick text to Atobe’s personal number, with some private details that he and Dan had discovered a few weeks back.

Atobe promptly replied with _I dislike those who attempt to blackmail me. Explain._

 _I have information that you might find useful regarding breaking Yukimura’s company. I would wish to meet you soon._ texted back Yanagi, his fingers flying. He could only beg that Atobe was free and that he would promptly reply. Sadaharu would take another 3.5 minutes to change and another 4.5 minutes to find the rackets and clean them. 

_Why should I acquiesce to your demands, Inui Sadaharu?_ Atobe replied, after a small pause in the reply time. He’d done his research quickly. Yanagi was impressed. 

_Ask Hiyoshi about Operation Upheaval._ texted back Yanagi, his eyes going to the stairs again. He knew for a fact that Sadaharu wasn’t coming down anytime soon as he was still getting dressed (and a traitorous part of his mind wondered exactly what that would look like now that Sadaharu was no longer a gangly ten year old, but a sleek twenty-one year old), but it didn’t stop his anxiety over his data being defied. 

He gave Atobe around five minutes to get it done....and sure enough, at the end of that time period, Atobe texted back. _I will meet with you. Tomorrow morning, 7am sharp. If you are even a slightest bit late, I will cancel my meeting with you._

Yanagi smirked and texted back a single word. _Done_

Then he deleted the entire conversation, deleted the deletion of the conversation and placed Sadaharu’s phone back on the table in exactly the same position it had been before. Sadaharu would suspect nothing when he met with Atobe tomorrow, because Atobe’s pride would prevent him from speaking about ‘Inui’ calling the meeting. He would pretend that he had called the meeting and attempt to assume control and everything would be fine. If only his heart believed him.

He pulled out his own phone and pretended to be calling Oshitari. It was a well-known fact that the two of them ran interference between Atobe Corp and Rikkai Industries. 

“Yes, yes, I get it. Yes, I’ll tell him. Don’t worry too much, Yuushi. Yes, I’m aware of what Seiichi will say. Don’t be a smart-alec, Yuushi. Or your boss might just one day get irritated. Mmm, I get it.” he said, pretending to have a conversation with Oshitari as Sadaharu descended down the stairs in a sports shirt and shorts that were just a little too small for him and Yanagi paused a little and had to avert his eyes. 

“Yes, I’ll call you back later Yuushi. I understand. Yes, I’ll tell him, stop worrying. I’ll hardly endanger your job.” He pretended to cut the call and put the phone away. Sadaharu’s eyes were hidden as ever behind his glasses, but if Yanagi could see them, he’d expect them to be calculating. 

“Oshitari called. He got informed that we’d opened up the message. He wanted to arrange a meeting. Since he wouldn’t give in, I said yes, tomorrow morning. He said that the only time that Atobe would be free is 7am.” He took in a deep breath and pretended to be somewhat frustrated. “What is the programme, Hakase?”

Sadaharu licked his lips, before he took a seat down by Yanagi, perching on the end of the comfortable couch. “It was called Operation Upheaval.” he breathed out heavily and Yanagi could see how much effort it took for Sadaharu to say the words. He placed his hand on Sadaharu’s thigh and pretended to not noticed Sadaharu stiffening under his touch. 

“It was a programme intended as a hostage. Only criminals would have been able to pull off using it. It was a programme that would remove every firewall in the world that it could access. No matter how strong or remote, if there was even a slightest connection, it would destroy the firewall.” explained Sadaharu, his hands fiddling in his lap. 

“I wasn’t forced into making it. Kite challenged me and I wanted to make it, in my stupidity and my ego.” He breathed in. “I wouldn’t be able to recreate it now. It was made from several weeks without sleep, surviving on only on Gatorade, Red Bull and my Carrot, Turnip, Radish and Marzipan smoothie. I wrote that code like someone who was possessed. The closest I can get to it now, are my unedited Juice codes and Waterfalls. They’ll bring down directly linked systems, but they don’t protect the files inside when killing the firewall. They just destroy.” 

“It was really potent. I tried it out once in a completely closed system. I coded some ridiculously strong walls and it destroyed all of them in less than thirty seconds.” Inui breathed in. “It was potent and it was in the hands of the yakuza.” 

Yanagi nodded. He understood a little better now. He’d known the basics about the programme’s capabilities but hearing this... That sort of delicacy but wide-sweeping destruction was...something that hadn’t been attempted before in the world of hacking. It was too ambitious a task. He could scarcely believe that his childhood friend Sadaharu had done it. 

“But you destroyed it.” he said, clearly.

“Yes.” said Sadaharu, firmly. “I wouldn’t let something like that get out into the proper world. Once I ran that test, I knew I couldn’t let it out. I did my best to stall for time and I was plotting something. It wouldn’t have worked...but it didn’t need to. Because you appeared in my life again and saved me.” said Sadaharu, his voice soft and a small smile appearing on his face. 

Yanagi smiled back at him and had to shut his eyes completely to get his brain back into the game. “So then....you couldn’t rebuild it? At all? Even with time?”

“Nope.”

“But...a more specialized version? That doesn’t damage the files and only breaks down the firewalls and linked firewalls of something it was aimed at.” asked Yanagi, as he bit his lip. This was the riskiest part of the whole venture. There were times when he really hated Yukimura. 

Sadaharu blinked. “Renji...you can’t want me to make it for Atobe?”

“Not for Atobe. For yourself.” said Yanagi. And really, he was speaking the truth. It was for Sadaharu’s personal use. It was just...Yukimura planned to manipulate Sadaharu’s will to match his. He planned to make Atobe Corp fall. “Just using Atobe’s building as a place to plot.” 

Sadaharu’s eyes shifted behind the glasses. It was only because they were sitting so close that’s he’d noticed. Yanagi wondered what else he missed because of his usual distance. “Renji...”

“You need a company’s technology. And if Atobe believes that you’re helping him, he’ll help you. Since you can’t come into Rikkai again, this is for the best.” said Yanagi, as he gripped Sadaharu’s wrists. 

“But why, Renji? Why should I make it? What sense does that make, to create something like that...again?” asked Sadaharu, his eyebrows furrowed. Yanagi inwardly swore. He knew that Sadaharu wasn’t stupid. It didn’t make any logical sense. He’d have to try a different tactic. 

Yanagi swallowed. “I have a plan, Sadaharu. About not having to work for a living again, if you can make something like Operation Upheaval and utilise it effectively. It’s not quite finished, but since Atobe is forcing our hand, we have to work fast.” 

Sadaharu’s eyes fell to Renji’s hands on his wrists. “So, I work for Atobe while he presumably monitors me with either Hiyoshi or Kabaji to make a coding programme that could ruin many thousands of peoples and their lives. And then I backstab him and take it for myself last minute?” he asked, clearly somewhat incredulous.

“In a nutshell, yes.” said Yanagi, as he let go of Sadaharu’s wrists. “It’s a cut-throat world. And rules are made to be broken.”

Sadaharu adjusted his glasses. “Okay then. Tomorrow at 7am, precisely. I assume Atobe doesn’t welcome latecomers, so I should arrive at 6:30 and prepare for a wait.” he said, as he cleared his throat and stood up. Yanagi felt his eyes drawn to the slight bob of Sadaharu’s adam’s apple and he wondered what it would feel like to pin him up against the wall and just lick it until Sadaharu was moaning. 

He cleared his mind and stood up. “Yes, that’s right. Now, which courts do you find the most convenient?” asked Yanagi. “Logically, the Shinjuku courts are the closest, but they may not be the best, and since I don’t live near here, I haven’t got satisfactory data on them.”

Sadaharu blinked, before he tossed the racket to Yanagi. “There was only a 34% chance that you’d want to play tennis after that conversation. But I prefer to use the nearby high school’s courts. Technically, they’re closed to outsiders, but their walls are low and the courts are exemplary.”

“34% that I wouldn’t want to play, actually.” corrected Yanagi. He’d reversed his figures, how unusual for Sadaharu. He slung the racket over his shoulder and they walked towards the door. “But how daring of you, Sadaharu.”

Sadaharu just smirked. “It’s a cutthroat world. And rules are made to be broken.” 

Yanagi paused just a little before chuckling. That was just like Sadaharu.

They walked to the tennis courts in relative silence, as Yanagi stewed in his thoughts. He was worried. He didn’t have a doubt that Sadaharu could pull off the coding, but the actual deception part? Should he have let Sadaharu go into the building thinking that he _was_ in fact going to help Atobe? Atobe was known as the Ice King, he could usually tell when someone was lying to him. 

But...it would have made no logical sense, unless Yanagi had done something to disprove Yukimura’s legibility....which wouldn’t have happened, because Sadaharu knew how loyal to Yukimura he was. 

Yanagi sighed and bit his lip again. He was going around in circles. He had to stop worrying. Sadaharu had to pull this off, so he would pull it off. Enough said. 

“Here, you have to jump the wall, Kyouju.” said Sadaharu lowly as they reached a brick wall that was exactly four-fifths the size of their height. His arms reached up and he hopped the wall with the ease of an experienced practitioner. 

Yanagi followed quickly. While he hadn’t done any real sport in a very long time, his body remembered how and he hadn’t let himself get completely unfit. He wasn’t fat, heaven forbid. Just, his muscles were lacking the strength they had during his middle school years. 

“It’s been 11 years and four months since we last played together, hasn’t it, Hakase?” asked Yanagi, as he unwrapped the racket and tested the strings. It was kept in good condition. Did Sadaharu practise frequently?

“Five months, I believe,” said Sadaharu, with a small furrow in his brow. “I think the Hawaii tournament was the last one we played as a doubles pair...until–”

He broke off and Yanagi nodded. Until Sadaharu’s parents had died, leaving him to go live with his aunt away from Tokyo, at the end of their elementary school doubles partnership. “But this isn’t doubles.” stated Yanagi, as he stretched out his leg muscles. 

“Of course not.” said Sadaharu, as he cracked his neck and smiled. “There is an 87% chance that you would wish to serve first.” 

Yanagi’s eyebrows rose. “But, of course.” Press the advantage that you had. And serves were ways to control the game easily. Why wouldn’t he accept the opportunity?

He caught the ball that Sadaharu tossed him and relished in the familiar feel of the spring neon-yellow ball, as Sadaharu moved to the baseline of the opposite court. He had missed this. Yanagi stretched up languidly, pausing only to look up at the rapidly darkening sky, before using his height to push a powerful speed serve past Sadaharu. 

They played hard, returning ball after ball after ball, running and working up energy, keeping each others points perfectly, predicting where the other would aim, even after eleven and a half years without any sort of new data on tennis. 

But, Yanagi’s attention wasn’t wholly upon the game as it might have been when he had been a child. For one, he was still worrying about the company and getting discovered by Atobe. But the more superficial part of his brain was focusing on the grunts and groans that Sadaharu made while playing tennis and was wondering whether those would sound the same if Yanagi just pinned Sadaharu to a wall and kissed him senseless. 

When Yanagi lost the set, he was panting hard and practically glowing with sweat. The game had taken more energy from him than he’d been expecting it to. “That was a good game, Hakase.” he said, as he moved up to the net. “But the winner will be myself, next time. I have assimilated the appropriate data.” 

Sadaharu just smirked. “But Kyouju, so have I.” The smirk was entirely too enticing. The slight curve of Sadaharu’s lips, the pants wracking through his childhood friend’s body and the thoughts that had been plaguing him incessantly all evening were accumulating. And really, what was stopping him? After this whole debacle was over, Sadaharu would hate him. Yanagi had to take advantage of the mutual feelings now, while he still could. 

Yanagi stepped closer to the net, grabbed the front of Sadaharu’s shirt and pulled him into a deep kiss. Sadaharu returned it eagerly, his own hands dropping his racket upon the hard court and reaching around Yanagi’s body to grip his shoulders. 

When they broke away, Yanagi met Sadaharu’s eyes triumphantly and went back in for another, taking in the data of the pitch that Sadaharu moaned at when Yanagi moved his hands just there and his tongue around 3 millimetres to the right. And the data of how Sadaharu shifted when Yanagi’s hands pressed and rubbed against that certain spot on his lower back. And the data of the exact angle that Sadaharu made when he impatiently jumped the net to reach more of Yanagi’s body. 

Finally, Yanagi pulled back a little, panting from the exertion of not kissing Sadaharu again. “Your apartment is better than a public tennis court for collecting all of the appropriate data.” he said, his voice a little coarser and more shaky than before. 

Sadaharu nodded. “Let’s pack up and head back.” he said, clearly having to restrain himself also. 

While the walk there had seemed a short and pleasant one, the walk back was almost torturous from resisting the urge to push Sadaharu down and kiss him senseless. Yanagi had to prevent himself from walking too close to Sadaharu, for he was sure that even the slightest touch between them would overrule his common sense. 

When Sadaharu’s apartment building came into sight, Yanagi looked up and forced himself to plan. “You have to be out of the house by six tomorrow. We’d better not dally. We’ll wake up early for it.”

“You’re staying the night?” Sadaharu looked somewhat surprised and Yanagi shot him a look. Really? Was Sadaharu under the impression that this was just lust and that Yanagi would just leave once the lust was satisfied? Please. He wanted to savour every last moment with Sadaharu.

“Of course. I shall make breakfast in the morning. I wouldn’t wish for you to poison yourself before we start anything.” Usually, Yukimura, through his caterer, Marui, provided a continental breakfast to his workers, which had previously negated the problem with Sadaharu cooking. 

Sadaharu’s eyebrows rose a little as they reached his apartment and he slid the key into the door and opened it for Yanagi. “I’m not so incompetent, Renji.” 

The moment that the door slammed shut, Yanagi pinned Sadaharu to the door frame, dropping the rackets to the ground, unceremoniously. Their mouths met again and Yanagi’s hands fumbled at the front of Sadaharu’s shirt, from shaking a little, due to the fact that Sadaharu’s hands were moving rather insistently along his hips and that action felt entirely indescribable. 

Sadaharu pulled away from the kiss and glanced down at Yanagi’s hands. “I have no practical data to apply to this area, Kyouju.” he said, his voice a lot deeper and huskier, a timbre that Yanagi noted and stored away in a small corner of his brain dedicated solely to Sadaharu and his reactions. 

“Neither do I.” said Yanagi, honestly, as he leant forward to nip at Sadaharu’s exposed collarbone. “Why don’t you help me collect some data, Hakase?” he whispered, soft and slow against the creamy texture of Sadaharu’s skin. 

“Certainly, Kyouju.” said Sadaharu, as he pulled off his glasses to kiss Yanagi again.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Inui nervously adjusted his glasses on his nose. He hadn’t slept much last night (understandably) and he still had bitemarks and bruises hidden under the immaculate collar of his suit and tie. He wasn’t used to wearing something like it. T-shirts and sweatpants had been the attire of most of the hackers in Yukimura’s company. Still, Atobe was reputed to have a more formal demeanor and approach to the business.

Of course, from a man whose immediate family had all worked in the business, it was understandable. Unlike Rikkai Industries, which had started out on a roof in Kanagawa, by a rich sixteen year old boy with too much time on his hands and plans of world domination; Atobe Corp had been around since the Second World War, first started by Atobe’s great-grandfather and carried on through the years by his descendants. 

Inui nodded to the receptionist dressed in a formal suit as he came indoors. It was 6:40, he was very early. “I have an appointment with Atobe Keigo at 7?” he asked, after clearing his throat and sounding as professional and polite as possible. Still, his discomfort probably showed, if the look of utter disdain on the face of the man in front of him was anything to go by. 

“Name?” he asked boredly, as he flicked his chin-length brown hair.

“Inui Sadaharu.” said Inui, coolly. The man tapped at the keyboard with his perfectly manicured nails and tapped them across his face. The he sneered and looked up. “Atobe-sama will see you now, Inui Sadaharu.” The man pronounced Inui’s name like it was the name of the scum under his feet. Inui felt rather insulted. 

Nevertheless, he nodded again and walked to the lift. The door pinged open and the smiling visage of Oshitari Yuushi greeted him. “Inui-san. What a pleasant surprise!” he said, with a wide smile.

“It’s not a surprise at all.” said Inui, coolly, as he pushed up his glasses. Oshitari had helped to arrange the meeting. It was hardly a surprise that Inui had shown up. No wonder Renji sounded so annoyed about his encounters with Oshitari. 

“No, I suppose it isn’t. Keigo’s expecting you. Though you’re early, which is more than we expected from Yukimura’s rag-tag bunch.” said Oshitari, as he pressed the button to close the lift doors.

“A rag-tag company whose annual shares are 5.7% higher than Atobe Corps.” said Inui, smoothly. 

“Not anymore.” said Oshitari smugly. “Today, the Sanada investments finish transferring.” 

Inui frowned. What? Sanada had invested in Atobe Corp? This was entirely unexpected data. Hadn’t Yukimura been spending an inordinate amount of time to try and seal Sanada’s loyalty to Rikkai? Why...hadn’t Renji told him this? Unless Renji himself was unaware of it.... 

His thoughts took him to the top floor, where the lift doors opened into a large office. Oshitari waved mockingly, before he pressed another button and disappeared. Inui took in a deep breath and sent out his misgivings. He couldn’t reveal anything to the Ice King. Especially not the recorder in his pocket.

“Inui Sadaharu.” said Atobe’s voice as he approached the large desk surrounded by huge flatscreens. “You’re early.”

“Better than being late.” said Inui easily, as he took a seat and placed his small briefcase on the floor. Well, it wasn’t actually his, but Renji’s. He’d only owned a small duffle bag, but Renji had looked almost horrified when he’d suggested taking that with him. 

“Ahn? What do you have for me?” asked Atobe, coolly, as he turned his ice-blue eyes onto Inui and pulling his right hand up to his eyes. Inui surmised that he must have worn glasses previously, since it was a gesture that he’d seen Niou repeat once he’d replaced his glasses with contacts. 

“Operation Upheaval.” started Inui. “It’s impossible to recreate.” 

“Hiyoshi said as much, yes.” said Atobe, a tad impatiently. 

Inui frowned. If Hiyoshi had said as much, then why had Atobe summoned him? “But...” he continued, not letting the slight confusion stop him. Atobe was a persistent man. “I think I can recreate the majority of it. Enough that it would be a significant tool against another company.” 

Atobe’s face didn’t change much, but Inui could tell that the offer fascinated him. “Go ahead.” he said.

“The idea is that it would destroy a system and all of the directly linked firewalls there, without destroying the data.” said Inui, coolly. “So it no longer becomes a terrorism issue, but a server malfunction that temporarily causes all of their data to be available.”

There. He’d got him. Atobe looked altogether too interested, though he was obviously trying to hide it. “So, you’d wish to use my server and equipment to develop this weapon....”

Inui nodded. “And when I do finish, the product would be yours. But it’s a one-time use code. If too many of these incidents occur, it would become suspicious. So I’d choose wisely.” 

Atobe nodded and Inui knew that the wise choice was obviously to choose Yukimura’s company. But if he had his way, Atobe would never even know when he finished. No company was going to be sunk by this. “I have one in mind, yes.”

“Then, if you are to use my equipment, I have one condition.” said Atobe, as he leant back in his chair and tilted his chin up. 

“Name it.” said Inui, knowing what it would be already.

“You will be watched over by Hiyoshi, for any signs of anything suspicious. And, Kabaji will be helping you with anything that you may need.” said Atobe. Inui nodded. That was what he’d thought. It was good to know that his calculations were still right. 

“Of course, that makes sense. I can abide by those orders.” said Inui, nodding. The screens of the TVs around Atobe illuminated his entire face, making his every pore visible to Inui, as he thought of how to make it seem like he was disgruntled and not content. “But...must it be Hiyoshi?” he asked, pretending that he held some ill will to the younger man. 

Judging by Atobe’s smirk, this was the right thing to say. “I think it will be Hiyoshi, Inui Sadaharu.” 

Inui looked down a little reluctantly and nodded, but inwardly cheered. The fact was, that while Hiyoshi was verbally one of the more unpleasant people that Inui had ever met, he and Kite operated by the same set of high standards. And Hiyoshi owed him. 

“Very well, it seems we are done. I will expect a report of your progress by the end of every week, understood?” demanded Atobe. 

Inui stood up and bowed. “Of course.” he said, sounding a little humbled, as he backed away towards the lifts. He didn’t let the triumphant smirk touch his lips, because who knew where the cameras were? But instead, as he entered the lift, and was greeted by an Atobe Corp employee showing him where he’d be working, he started humming cheerfully, under his breath. 

He could do this.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Inui frowned as he tapped at his computer, and took a sip from the home brew of Ginger, Radish, Marshmallow and Turnip drink. Recreating something as complex as Operation Upheaval had been was proving to be immensely challenging. Even if he could actually remember the code, actually typing it out would have taken a long time. 

As it was, with just his vague recollections, it was practically impossible and he spent most of his time, both there and at home, scrawling out draft after draft of the skeleton code and revising the recursion loops.

Still, things were slightly aided by the help of the quiet Kabaji, who occasionally dropped by to help where he could. The man was really as talented as the rumours had suggested, a true equal to Niou. Inui enjoyed what little conversation they exchanged. He was both a good listener and a wise speaker. No wonder he was one of Atobe’s most favoured employees. 

The work was tough and all of Inui’s time at work was spent inside the cubicle, even his lunches, which Kabaji usually brought him without any complaints. Still, some familiar faces, from both rumours are company parties popped in to look on and occasionally mock. Like Shishido, Mukahi and the lazy genius Akutagawa, the other day.

But, there was one person whose presence never left the room. And that, was Hiyoshi. 

“You stopped typing and you aren’t scribbling like a chicken.” said Hiyoshi boredly, from where he was propped up in the corner with a book. “Your brain died?”

“I had a thought.” replied Inui, vaguely. 

“How remarkable. You prolonged your life and my torture just a bit longer. Well done.” said Hiyoshi dryly, as he, flicked the page in the books, his glasses perched on the end of his nose as he continued to read the large philosophy textbook. 

Inui just snorted. Getting angry from Hiyoshi’s comments was foolhardy. They more amusing than insulting at this point, anyway. He’d developed a thicker skin than the one he’d had at fourteen. “How’s your family doing? Your mother get any better at finding her keys? Kite finally beat your father in the dojo?” he asked, casually.

Usually, he didn’t bring them up, as he spent most of his waking hours trying to forget that time period at the yakuza, but since he was attempting to remember the code from the past, other memories from his past were re-emerging as he trawled through his brain. 

Hiyoshi glared at Inui. “Shut up about them. You don’t know anything about them.”

“Your mother won a huge science grant 2.45 years ago and when your father disapproved of her being at work all the time, she divorced him, correct?” asked Inui, casually, but somewhat cruelly. 

Hiyoshi’s face went blank and he turned back to his book. “Shut up.” he said, shortly. “I don’t keep in touch with any of them anymore. Atobe’s the only relative I have to put up with on a daily basis, and that’s because nii-san married his cousin. “

“Not even Kite?” asked Inui, curiously. They’d been close for cousins during that time.

“Nobody. Not since your friend swept in with the police and the Okinawan branch collapsed.” snapped Hiyoshi, as he looked up from over the top of his textbook and glared. “Get back to work, before I report you to Atobe for being unfocused.”

Inui paused. “You didn’t keep in touch with anybody?”

“They’re in jail.” said Hiyoshi, flatly. “I only got out of it because I was a minor and Atobe threw in his cents. Why would I keep in touch with them?”

“But Kite was your cousin.” said Inui, with a small frown, as he composed a couple of if blocks. 

Hiyoshi snorted. “Ha, maybe if Eishirou was in prison, I’d send him a card or something. I dunno.”

Inui’s frown grew more pronounced. This was disturbing. “Wait for a millisecond, Hiyoshi. Kite’s not in prison?”

Hiyoshi’s smirk lazily developed. “I have information that you don’t? My my, what is the world coming to? Are you growing lazy, Inui?”

Inui didn’t bother speaking, just stayed silent. Hiyoshi was too smug over this and he wouldn’t be able to resist telling Inui. He would hold the fact that Inui hadn’t known it before over Inui’s head, but it didn’t matter too much. He’d have the data by then. 

As expected, Hiyoshi eventually spoke up again, “Kite never got caught. He disappeared before the police caught him. People thought that Kai was the ringleader and Kai was content to leave it that way. Kite disappeared entirely. There’s been no sign of him for five whole years.” 

Inui nodded, and tapped at the keys. “I see.” he said, with a pensive look to the numerous post-its on the walls. “I’ll leave you to your studying.”

Hiyoshi just grunted and turned back to his book. But Inui paused and started ‘scribbling’ as Hiyoshi had called it. Except, his mind wasn’t on the code. It was on the fact that Kite had escaped arrest. Kite could be anywhere now and Inui would never know. 

Kite could be hiding in his apartment one day when he got home and could kill him. Kite could be waiting in renji’s apartment to kill him. Kite could be infiltrating Rikkai to get revenge on Renji and Yukimura pressuring the police into breaking the Okinawan yakuza. 

Inui calmed his breathing down, as it sped up, by taking a long, deep sip of his homebrew. It had been five, long years. Kite had left him well alone. There was no reason to get panicked. If Kite hadn’t come to haunt him within the first year of escape, he wasn’t ever going to find Inui. 

xxxxxxxxxx

Yanagi frowned as he looked down at the information packet in his hands. “Seiichi....” he said, softly, as he looked back up. “How did you know all of this?”

Yukimura, who was engrossed with another article on his computer, looked up. “Hmm?” Then he smirked. “Why don’t you guess, Renji?”

Yanagi looked back down. It was everything on Hiyoshi and Sadaharu from both of their childhoods. It had to be someone who was close to both people....

Ignoring Sadaharu’s connections for now, the people who could provide this information for Hiyoshi were Hiyoshi’s older brother, who was married to Atobe’s cousin and wouldn’t aid Yukimura, Hiyoshi’s mother who was too busy with her science research to even care about Yukimura’s inquiries, Hiyoshi’s father who was in Norway and had no connections to Sadaharu and Kite Eishirou, Hiyoshi’s older cousin and...main leader of the yakuza gang that Sadaharu had been involved with.

It made sense. He didn’t need to explore Sadaharu’s connections.

“Kite Eishirou.” said Yanagi, slowly. “Who escaped police arrest....because of you?”

Yukimura nodded, an obviously pleased expression on his face. Another test. Yanagi just faced test, after test, after test in his daily communication with Yukimura. Yanagi wondered when he’d gotten tired of the mind games that they’d once so loved. 

“I’d appreciate if that information didn’t get out, Renji. He’s an old friend and I owed him a favour from middle school.” said Yukimura, coolly, 

Yanagi sighed. “Must have been quite a large one, Seiichi, to keep him out of prison.”

“He was tremendously helpful, yes.” said Yukimura, stiffly. “But that’s beside the point. I need you to alienate Inui against Atobe Corp. Kite can pressure Hiyoshi into making Inui’s life a living hell but he needs to know the fastest way to get to both of them.”

Yanagi pursed his lips together and squeezed his eyes tighter together. Sometimes he hated the way his job forced him to compromise his loyalties. “Hiyoshi will react more hostilely if his family is mentioned. He will be less likely to work with Kite. Kite must appeal to his ambition to surpass Atobe, without addressing familial connections.”

Yukimura nodded and took a few notes on his fancy post-it notes. “And Inui?”

Yanagi swallowed discreetly. “He’ll grow more alienated by discrimination for being gay or being a nerd. He’ll also grow colder if his code is insulted. But Sadaharu is a lot more difficult to hurt unless he grows emotionally attached.”

The blue-haired man just kept writing. “I understand.” Then he exhaled and bit his lip, playing at it with his front teeth. “If worst comes to worst, I may have to ask you to deliver that final blow, Renji. But I will not ask unless things have gotten desperate.”

“You mean they haven’t already?” asked Yanagi coldly, as he got up and walked out. Yukimura would forgive him this much, he knew, but they would be a little colder when they next met. 

But Yanagi’s heart was cold and breaking and he couldn’t keep doing this anymore. He knew that what he felt for Sadaharu was love and he wanted to develop that love, not smash it on Yukimura’s whims. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Faggot, leave me alone! Can’t you see I’m trying to study?” demanded Hiyoshi angrily as Inui turned to ask him a question. 

Inui’s jaw tightened. “There are more polite ways to tell me that you don’t wish to be disturbed, Hiyoshi.” he said, coolly. That was the fourth time today that Hiyoshi’s usually dry comments had turned unusually hurtful. In an almost forced manner, Inui noted. It didn’t seem that Hiyoshi even had a reason for the unusual bad mood. It didn’t seem natural at all. 

And if he wasn’t imagining it, Hiyoshi had just winced at Inui’s cool dismissal. 

Inui sighed as he turned back to the code. Tapping his fingers against his face, he attempted to tap some more lines, but failed. He wasn’t going to be able to do anything productive like this. He turned to drink some more of his flask of Beetroot, Turmeric and Coriander to calm his nerves down and frowned upon discovering it empty. 

...he’d have to resort to coffee. Fuzzleshiz. “Kabaji-kun, excuse me a second. I’m going to get some coffee. Would you like some?”

The taller man looked up from his specially-made keyboard with larger keys. “No thank you, Inui-san.” he said, calmly, his deep voice rumbly as he offered a tentative smile. 

Inui nodded and walked out of the door, not bothering to ask Hiyoshi if he wanted anything. He paused a little at the coffee machine itself and pondered his options, before he finally gave up and went for the basic black coffee with lots of sugar. As he waited for his coffee, he paused upon noticing a lot of staring and whispering directed in his way.

There was a 29.5% that they were gossipping about the fact that Inui had ventured out of the room at all. Another 47% that he was walking around without an escort. Around 30.7% that he looked out-of-place in a taboo way. Upon checking, he didn’t look ridiculous. He wore a casual polo and normal slacks. So no, not some fashion misdemeanour. So now, he was rather confused. 

He pretended to tie his shoelace and overhead something about ‘ _a complete queer, can’t believe Atobe hired him_ ’. His mouth tightened marginally. Well then. Somehow that had gotten out, despite Inui never mentioning it once. How irritating.

...something was really strange here, he mused, as he walked back with his coffee. It didn’t make sense. He’d had a good experience here, so far. Akutagawa was friendly, Shishido, Hiyoshi and Mukahi were tolerable and Kabaji was the nicest person he’d ever met, after Renji. So why was today out to make him especially stressed?

To think about it, however, it hadn’t just been today. Hiyoshi had been meaner than usual for the past few days, though today he’d reached his vitriol limit. 

So something had changed. Inui couldn’t help but wonder what. 

As he was about to reenter the room, he noticed Hiyoshi walk out looking entirely frustrated. Inui frowned again. This really was strange. Inui quickly strode into the room and saw Kabaji leaning over his computer and frantically tapping. Inui waited patiently. He trusted Kabaji and Kabaji had evidently noticed that Inui was in the room, but didn’t seem eager to hide any sort of misdemeanour. 

Finally, when Kabaji straightened, Inui offered him a weak smile. “Something disastrous happened?” That was starting to become an uncomfortable trend. 

“Usu.” said Kabaji, as he moved back to his computer. ‘The programme’s compiler decided to run when you weren’t there, so I had to fix the code to not cause any damage to the internal systems.” 

Inui nodded his appreciation. “Thank you, Kabaji-kun.” He took a seat in front of his computer and took a sip from his steaming cup of coffee. Hmm, it was bland. Maybe he was too used to his home-blends.

He glanced down at the code and blinked. There...had been no exaggeration when they said that Kabaji was a perfect impersonator of code. That was exactly the same steps he would have taken to solve the problem, down to the exact order of the code notes. Inui chuckled a little. What fascinating data. 

He was now somewhat curious as to the state of what Niou’s work would be like, since Niou and Kabaji were always compared. But he’d never gotten to glimpse the work of the other man. He’d always been rather secretive, though Mizuki complained that Niou and Fuji teamed up to the sabotage his wor–

Inui almost dropped his coffee. A thought had just hit him. He’d ran that test through the programme. And nothing had come up before he’d submitted it. And when he and Renji had run the programme at home, it had not been corrupted. It had just contained Atobe’s message to him.

So..the corruption was only on the hard-drive which he’d given to Yukimura. He still had that hard-drive, as well as the original SD card. Inui placed his coffee down carefully on his table and rummaged around his duffle bag. He plucked the hard-drive and the SD card out and connected them to the computer, his foot tapping impatiently against the floor. 

There was a high possibility that he was wrong. And if he was wrong, it wouldn’t matter too much. But if he was right...that changed everything. 

Finally, the two files loaded, and he pulled up the two copies of the information that he’d picked up from Atobe and placed them side by side on the desktop. He didn’t open them, since that would be folly. Especially since one of them was corrupted. Looking through the file properties, the two file-sizes were different. There was more MB in the file in the hard-drive, which could make sense if the file was corrupted. 

That was the somewhat acceptable part and pointed to Inui’s suspicions being wrong. But the part that confirmed Inui’s suspicions showed up. The file on the SD card was last edited at 2.07pm, the time that Inui had finished the file. However, the file on the hard drive was last edited later at night, at 9:45pm, when Inui had definitely been at home, rewatching Firefly episodes. 

Inui didn’t need to open the file on the hard drive to know that the code would have a crucial hole or fallacy that Inui might have made in a tired coding run at night. His coding style and notes style, perfectly mimicked so Yukimura would have no choice but to believe it was Inui’s mistake. It would have been the perfect edit, if it was by Niou. The question now, was why?

Inui took a contemplative sip of the coffee. It really wasn’t doing much for him. He really needed to make extras of his juice. 

He had to focus. So Niou made his code riddled with errors, and forced Yukimura to fire him..for what purpose? Niou was senior to Inui on the employee hierarchy, so it wasn’t for competition. And not for spite either; he and Niou were on generally friendly terms, though Niou was definitely closer to Renji than he was to Inui. 

...but he’d given the hard drive to Renji to give to Yukimura. Renji would have handed it over at 2:43pm and then it would have been Yukimura’s property. Since Yukimura never just ‘lost’ something, it was obvious that he’d handed it to Niou. 

So why would Yukimura want him out of Rikkai?

...were this a bad sitcom, Inui would have thought about Yukimura perhaps wanting Renji for his own, or something ridiculous like that, which only made sense in sitcoms. But Inui had to stop thinking the world revolved around him. He wasn’t someone special. 

His eyes fell to the code and suddenly, everything clicked. He wasn’t anything special, not really, but the code he wrote, was important and world-shattering. Yukimura wanted this code, this company-breaking code. 

So his plan was: One, Inui had to be taken from Rikkai, in a manner of relative disgrace, but not one of hatred. Enough that he would turn to Atobe and make the threatened programme for Atobe. But step two was unclear to Inui. How did this benefit Yukimura? Because if he followed that path, Inui would just manufacture the programme for Atobe and the programme would destroy Rikkai.

The opposite of what Yukimura would want. In fact, the only reason that Inui wasn’t following that plan was Renji’s persuasion. So wh–oh. Inui shut his eyes and leant back into his chair. He pushed his fingers under the frame of his glasses and held them there for a while. He wasn’t actually crying, but he felt close to it. 

Renji was in on it as well. It was the only reason that Atobe’s message had shown up on Renji’s computer, despite the original SD card information being unedited since Inui had made the programme. It was how Yukimura’s plan would work.

Because Renji would make him hate Atobe Corp completely. And instead of not directing it to either company, Inui would target Atobe Corp. And Yukimura would win.

Of course, the reason as to why Yukimura couldn’t just hire him to dissolve Atobe Corp was the difference between corporate sabotage and one revenge-filled plot of a jilted worker. 

It made sense. The only parts of the puzzle that didn’t fit were Hiyoshi’s skittishness and...Renji himself. 

“Is anything the matter, Inui-san?” asked Kabaji, looking concerned. Inui started. Oh yes, he’d stopped typing and had just been staring at his screen. 

“No, I just realized I made a fallacy in my logic. I could do this all a lot faster in a different way.” said Inui, coldly. 

And there was a faster way to make the code, he could see that now. If he took a couple of shortcuts...and stopped following the way that Renji had taught him. If he went back to the more raw coding that he’d used back when he’d worked for Kite, then he’d be able to solve this qui–

Fuzzleshiz. He was on a roll today. He’d just figured out Hiyoshi’s skittishness. Why else would the otherwise untouchable Hiyoshi be meaner for no reason? Family problems. And Hiyoshi’s brother hadn’t done anything particularly overt and Hiyoshi’s parents were no longer in contact with Hiyoshi. So it only left Kite. Kite was back. 

And working with Yukimura. Why...? Probably linked to the reason that he’d been missing for the past five years. That would require some research. 

It was just like a bad korean sitcom that his mother used to loved watching, Inui decided. And he didn’t have enough coffee to deal with it all. He need huge amounts of coffee (or even a normal amount of Juice) and a flipboard to map out all the connections between everybody. And a magnifying glass, because no detective was complete without a magnifying glass. 

Pulling himself back to the topic, Inui pulled out some paper and started scribbling down all the variables, into a small connection map. Motives and influences were listed under each of them and how Inui would need to deal with each person until the code was finished. Hiyoshi, Yukimura, Atobe, other coworkers... Kite, if he showed up.

Hesitantly, Inui added Renji to the list last, a little more removed from the others. The motive there was Yukimura’s friendship, obviously. And maybe his job at the company. But Inui had no idea what to tell Renji or even to say to Renji. Demand(illogically) that he explain why Yukimura was more important than Inui? Ask Renji to switch sides to back Inui’s plans instead? Pretend that everything was okay? Inui sighed. 

It felt like a betrayal. An understandable betrayal, but nevertheless, Inui was selfish. He wanted to be the most important person to Renji. 

Inui sighed and bit his lip. There was nothing for it. Pretend that nothing had happened until he could detach himself from the situation a little better. Until he could disconnect his feelings for Renji from the equation and weigh the pros and cons logically, he wouldn’t act. 

But now that was dealt with, he needed actual resolutions. There were two solutions to solve the problem neatly for Inui. The first was to finish Operation Upheaval and use it on both companies, to dissolve both and reduce the petty squabbling to nothing. That was the option that Inui currently liked. He was fed up with both Yukimura and Atobe’s war. 

This wasn’t the first thing they’d done to each other. For years, Inui had been working to undermine Atobe Corp and for years, all of the other members had been working to do the same. It was tiresome. Especially since he knew both sides and both Atobe and Yukimura were in the wrong.

But...he glanced up to look at Kabaji who was softly humming a popular song from the other cubicle, a soft smile on his face as he went about his work. There were normal people mixed up in this squabble. Kabaji, Saeki, Fuji, Dan, Akutagawa, Kuwahara, Shishido, Mukahi; they didn’t deserve this. Even if Yukimura and Atobe had forgotten the little people in their games of war, Inui wouldn’t. 

His second option then, was to use Operation Upheaval as a threat to make Atobe and Yukimura unite their companies to reduce the petty squabbles to interoffice politics. There would be more strife between the coworkers, Inui knew, but the fact remained that a little interoffice competition to better the products was better than the harmful competition between two rival companies. 

Inui bit his lip. It was a complex plan, either way. But both of them required his completion of Operation Upheaval. So that was his priority for now. Inui ripped up the scrawled on sheet of paper, tossed it in the shredder and started typing more code and editing old code at a breakneck speed. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next few weeks passed in relative misery. Inui had been greeted with mostly cold looks and rude responses by most homophobic co-workers and particularly vehemently from Hiyoshi. The only upside to his days had been his daily conversations with Kabaji and coming home to Renji on the days when both he and Renji came home early from work.

He still wasn't used to it, and always jumped a little when he entered the house and saw someone else pottering around looking for groceries and criticising the contents of Inui’s fridge. And of course, when Renji pinned him to the sofa when Inui was least expecting it and kissed him senseless. 

But thoughts in that direction wouldn’t help him at all. Inui tapped for a little more, his eyes becoming somewhat glassy from focusing with such intensity.

He leant down and frowned a little at the final block code. Then Inui straightened and smiled triumphantly. If he wasn’t mistaken, he was all done. The code was finished. He stretched, popping several bones in his back as he did so and stood up.

Hiyoshi, who had looked up with disgust as Inui had popped his back, frowned. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” said Inui, with a smirk. “I’m stretching. Is that a crime?”

Hiyoshi just curled his lip up and snapped his book shut with a small glare. “It could be. Would you like me to check with Atobe?”

Inui just sighed. He felt it a little easier to put up with Hiyoshi’s bad temper now that he knew that Kite was out there and pressuring Hiyoshi, but Inui wasn’t a saint. The constant challenging and insults tried his patience. “I’m getting a coffee. That’s allowed in my rules.” 

Hiyoshi went back to his book and Inui breathed a sigh of relief. Now that the programme was done, he had to start implementing steps of his plan for integration. To start anything, he’d have to threaten one of the heads with the idea.

Inui was tempted to use the more transparent Atobe, but finally decided against it. Atobe had already been manipulated by Yukimura blindly. He didn’t want to do it to Atobe too. He’d have to face Yukimura...without Renji’s knowledge. In order to be able to push Yukimura, Inui might have to show off the skills he’d picked up from Kite, Kai and Chinen as far as negotiations tactics went.

And Inui didn’t want Renji to see that. Especially when Inui still did his best to hide that part of his life. He hated what he’d done as a criminal. He hated how he’d even had to turn to crime after his parents had died. How he’d thought that it would get he and his aunt some quick money and keep off the bullies at his new school.

He’d lost those bullies, sure, but he’d gained a new set of evils and a new type of bullying, in a more subtle manner. 

He filled up a cup at the coffee machine, just so Hiyoshi couldn’t find anything to snark about on that front, before he set off to go find Kabaji. The larger man wasn’t hanging out with the vast majority of the other coders, which Inui thanked his lucky stars for. Walking out amongst those rumours and the occasional outstretched leg was uncomfortable. 

Instead, Kababji was out on a balcony, seated against the railing, his computer in his lap.

“You aren’t cold?” asked Inui, as he pulled his jacket around him a little tighter. The winds up this high were harsh.

Kabaji shook his head in response. “I used to live in England with Keigo. It’s a lot colder there.” 

Inui nodded. New data, and pretty fascinating too. He knew that Atobe and Kabaji were childhood friends, but England was new. “Listen...I have a favour to ask you.” he said, as he wrung his hands together, as if he were nervous.

“Usu.” said Kabaji.

“You haven’t even heard it yet!” said Inui, with a small laugh.

“But it’s a yes, anyway.”

Inui smiled again. “I’m supposed to be working late today to finish the code, Kabaji-kun. But....I arranged a date with my boyfriend a long time before this and I don’t want to miss it.” This was a lie. Renji thought that Inui was working late as well. He’d be going home, back to his own apartment for once. Which left Inui to go meet Yukimura.

“You want me to work for you?” asked Kabaji, calmly.

“No.” said Inui, shaking his head. That would be bad, because then Kabaji would see that he was done and he still needed to stall for time, in order to make sure that Atobe didn’t snatch the programme.

Actually, just in case Kabaji felt like being too nice, he’d have to password lock the code, just to make sure that Kabaji couldn’t access it. “Just cover for me. Pretend that I’m there for the night. And I’ll be working on it tomorrow for twice as long.”

Kabaji nodded, with a small smile. “I can do that, Inui-san. Have fun with your boyfriend.”

Inui nodded gratefully, bowed and walked back in. Now....he had to go find a nice secluded area where he wasn’t likely to get interrupted to call Yukimura and schedule some sort of meeting. He was nervous just thinking about it. 

But as he wandered, it seemed that all secluded spots were occupied. Inui frowned. Perhaps he should have made the call before asking Kabaji for a favour. Besides, what if he was wrong and Yukimura was occupied with something tonight? There were so many things that could go wrong with this. 

Inui breathed out and bit his lip. He had to stop chickening out and just go for it. He squeezed his eyes together, looked both directions, and ducked into the usually abandoned women’s bathroom. He pulled himself into a cubicle, looked the door and uncomfortably leant against the tampon dispenser, as he dialed Yukimura’s number. 

He held the phone to his ear, while keeping the other ear peeled for other women entering the bathroom. “Yukimura.” said Inui, curtly, as the phone connected. “Your plan would have worked, if you had taken into account that computers can record times of editing and not just dates.”

“Who is this?” asked an old woman’s voice and Inui paled and cut the call quickly. Had he– he’d dialed it wrong. He’d dialed Yukimura’s number wrong. Inui sighed and leant back against the tampon dispenser. Then he shot up immediately, as a hard projectile collided with the small of his back. 

Had a tampon just shot at his back? Inui backed up quickly to the other wall of the toilet stall and glared at the offensive item. It could serve as a bullet if it was always ejected at that sort of speed! He rubbed his back with his free hand and sighed as he stared at the phone.

He was too nervous. He couldn’t face Yukimura when he was this scared. He had to stop being afraid of the change he would bring. No hero in any story that Inui had ever read, had been afraid of the world changing around them. They welcomed change. 

Inui picked up the phone again and dialed the number. He could be brave. He was playing his Xanatos gambit now. “Yukimura.” he said, waiting.

“Who is this?” asked Yukimura’s voice, curtly. 

“You plan would have worked if you had taken into account that computers can record times as well as dates.” said Inui, coolly. 

There was a short pause. “Inui.” uttered Yukimura, with a flat tone.

“Correct.” said Inui. “It was a good plan. But the devil’s in the detail.”

“Evidently.” said Yukimura, with a small snort. 

“You know, it was a good plan.” complimented Inui, with a wry grin. “It would have worked quite well. And the use of Kite was pretty ingenious. Hiyoshi is quite affected and he’s doing his best to sour my relationship with Atobe and the company.” 

Yukimura just hummed and Inui could practically taste the curiousity in his voice. “Quite. So what are you going to do now?”

“I think,” said Inui, “That rather depends upon you. I finished the programme. I was thinking about destroying both companies and letting the world deal with the aftermath.”

“You wouldn’t.” said Yukimura calmly. “You are close to too many people in this agency.”

“But the greater good always dwarfs the little people.” lied Inui, as he crossed his legs and smirked. “Are you willing to call my bluff, Yukimura?” 

There was a long pause on the other end of the line and Inui’s smile only grew wider as the artificial silence on the other end of the phone extended. He could hear the slow drip of a tap and the distant chattering of his coworkers, but Yukimura’s side was empty. Inui wondered whether Yukimura had put the phone down. 

“What do you want? asked Yukimura, after three long minutes of silence. “You’ve certainly got my attention, so what are you going to do with it?”

“Well...” said Inui, a little ruthlessly. “I think it’s a discussion best saved for behind closed doors. Who knows who is listening to this conversation, hmm? You free this evening?”

“Well, now I am.” said Yukimura, curtly and Inui’s face pulled into a triumphant smirk. 

“Good. See you at 9.” said Inui, as he cut the call and leant his head against the stall wall. Done. He’d done it. Now he needed to spend the rest of the day mustering the strength to blackmail Yukimura in person. 

He walked out of the cubicle quickly and started to make his way out of the bathroom and stopped abruptly, as three girls came in while chattering and froze upon seeing him. Inui paled rapidly. 

“What are you doing in here, you creep?” screeched one of the girls, throwing him a disgusted look. 

“Main-tenance. Because....Hiyoshi told me to.” said Inui, frantically. They didn’t seem impressed by his excuse.

“At least he’s homo. We know he can’t be perving.” said one of the other girls, coolly. “It’s still uber-creepy though, man. Seriously.” 

“I’m telling Atobe.” said the third one, as she brushed past him. “Go to your own bathroom.”

They swept into the bathroom and Inui quickly retreated, breathing a sigh of relief. One thing about Atobe’s bureaucracy meant that complaints didn’t get seen until the next day. And by then, it wouldn’t even matter. 

Luck wasn’t with him today, it seemed. Inui could only hope that Lady Luck felt like she was in a better mood by the evening. He wasn’t sure what would happen if his gambit failed. Someone would be destroyed and helpless by the end of the evening. Inui wasn’t religious, but if there was any god out there, he hoped they were backing him. 

xxxxxxxxxx

The lights of Rikkai Inc glimmered softly in the evening light, looking almost like a benevolent figure in the night sky. Inui adjusted his polo shirt a little and took in a deep breath. He couldn’t be nervous about change, not any more. 

He walked into the familiar lobby, which was void of any human presence, just a small pathway of lights that led to the lift. Right. Yukimura was going for the intimidating approach. He understood...and wasn’t about to let that get to him. 

Inui walked to the lift and pressed the button for the top floor, grateful that his height meant that he didn’t have to tiptoe to reach. The programme was on his phone, all ready to be primed in his pocket, in case negotiations went awry. He’d told Renji and Atobe that he’d be working later and the only ones who knew otherwise were Yukimura and Kabaji. 

There was no lift music to distract Inui. Perhaps it was meant to be a deterrent, but it just calmed down Inui. Yukimura meant business. Understandable, since Inui had threatened to tank his company over an unknown request. 

He walked out into the room and the first thing that Inui noticed was about how dark it was. “Your eyes will get damaged if you consistently work in such poor lighting.” said Inui, coolly, as he walked forward, undeterred by the darkness.

“It’s not a bother.” said Yukimura’s voice, from where his face was hidden in shadows.

“Ahh, but I used to work in the dark a lot. Look where that got me.” said Inui, pointing at his glasses, as he took a seat, without being invited to. He had power here and they both knew it. 

“Let’s cut to the chase, here, neither of us favour pleasantries.” said Yukimura, as he turned on a desk lamp and illuminated his face, rather like people did when they were telling ghost stories at sleepovers. There was no smile on his face. “What are your demands?” 

Inui paused for dramatic effect, but decided it just made him look like he was nervous, so cut it off. “This company war is ridiculous. So I demand that you and Atobe unite your companies. A merger between the two most powerful industries in the world.”

Yukimura was silent for a moment, and while his face was schooled to be perfectly blank, Inui could see the cogs turning and the shock written in there. 

“What’s in it for me?” asked Yukimura, finally.

“I don’t dissolve your company and it’s stocks.” said Inui, with a shrug. He thought it was pretty obvious himself. “But, if you need a little more incentive, well, I did a little investigation to my own rescue from the Yakuza a few years ago. I got off with bail because I was still a child. But Kite Eishirou, the main ringleader, escaped scot-free. Nobody knows where he is.”

Yukimura’s face was getting colder and Inui could only smirk. “A little bit of trailwork and digging behind-the-scenes uncovers a lot of proof about how the CEO of a major company is aiding and abetting a known and wanted felon. That’s set to be sent to the four main newspapers and TV stations, should my demand not be fulfilled.”

The company leader visibly frowned at this. “You came prepared.” he said, smoothly. “But what prevents me from matyring myself, should you crash my systems?” he asked, with a small smirk, 

“The fact that I’ll crash Atobe’s too.” said Inui, coolly. “And the plots between the two of you to destroy the other will be revealed for the whole world to see. The mutual destruction of two companies steeped in hate is not nearly so sympathetic.” 

Yukimura just nodded. “You are just as clever as Renji said.” he said, coolly. “But tell me, what incentive does Atobe have through all of this?”

Inui smirked. “Well, let’s just say there’s a recording of his hiring of me to bring down your company. And a picture of the message that ‘he’ sent to me regarding Operation Upheaval.” That second part was a lie, but you did what you had to.

Yukimura nodded and smirked faintly. “What you are thinking, however, won’t work.” said Inui, feeling more confident than ever. The once unreadable Yukimura was like putty in his hands. “You will merge the companies then turn on me to make sure the whole world knows about my treachery. But you see, if I’m ever exposed, the programme is but one touch away.” 

Yukimura still looked unconvinced. “Retina and fingerprint scanner.” Inui said, casually, to dissuade any ideas of trying to hack it and delete it. Even with all of his money, Yukimura would have trouble removing the eye of a high-profile person in prison. 

Inui sighed. “You’re also thinking that you’ll start the merging process and never finish. Trust me, I’ll keep an eye on this. If the merger halts, I’ll not hesitate to press the button.” He’d told himself this enough times, that Inui felt like he probably could. 

If he believed it, so would Yukimura. 

Yukimura’s eyes were cold, as he picked up the phone. “Make it convincing.” said Inui, with a small smirk. 

Yukimura twirled the cord around his finger, rocking slightly in his swivel-chair. “Keigo.” he purred. “It’s been so long.” 

There was silence and Yukimura chuckled. “Oh, come now Keigo, drop the Ice King persona. I want to speak with you, not Atobe.”

“Yes. I understand. But hear me out. Isn’t it getting boring? We both want the same thing, and that goal is more attainable together. Fighting with shareholders, fighting with the media and fighting with you...it gets boring, don’t you think? Why not eliminate one of those? Join with me.”

Yukimura laughed and leant back, but his eyes were cold as his eyes fell on Inui, and despite how convincing it sounded, Inui knew that his laughter was fake. “Monopolies are illegal, yes. But technically, we do still have competition, once this finishes. There are other companies out there.” 

There was a long pause, wherein Yukimura absently swiveled on his chair. “Oh but Keigo, you only see flaws. Flaws can be fixed. Think of the possibility.” 

There was only a short pause before Yukimura laughed dryly. “You sound just like your father. Always pushing yourself away from change. Is it so bad to change what your great-grandfather set up almost 100 years ago? Times change and you should learn to change with them. If your grandfather’s policies were so great, would I have have been able to find a place in the market?”

There was silence again and this time Yukimura pulled a face. “Please. Don’t make me laugh. You are declining, and you know it. Even with Sanada’s funding, there is no replacement for ingenuity. Your money and experience and the ideas from this company would spur the world into a flurry.” 

Inui frowned. There, the last piece of the puzzle slotted in. Sanada’s funding. Oshitari had briefly mentioned it, but now he understood. Why Yukimura had been spurred into action. He was lying about Sanada’s effect on Atobe. Sanada’s funding would boost Atobe Corp, not sink it. Sanada was one of the richest men in the world. 

Yukimura rolled his eyes and leant forward. “You’re being stubborn, Keigo. There is no real reason for you to refuse this. Except pride. And I believe your pride has long been diminished over the course of your business dealings.” His voice was quiet at the end, but his eyes were burning. 

Inui had to admit, he was extremely curious as to what Yukimura was speaking about. But it wasn’t his business, not anymore. He would overstep and he was already treading a fine line with Yukimura and Atobe and manipulation for data.

“You won’t admit to it? No matter, it doesn’t change the truth we both know. This is a dirty business.” said Yukimura finally. “But I’ll say this, you will regret turning me down, if you continue this. I won’t offer again.” 

Yukimura hung up and smirked. “Don’t look so worried, Inui. I know all about dear Keigo’s methods. He’ll need time to think in a manner he considers uncluttered. He’ll call back soon. Why don’t you make yourself comfortable?” 

Inui just shook his head. “‘I’m already comfortable, thank you.”

Yukimura scoffed. “I imagine you are. So what do you plan to do when you merge us, Inui? Where does your plan go after that?”

Inui shrugged. Yukimura was expecting more than what Inui planned. “I quit corporate hacking and keep the programme locked up somewhere in my system. Probably start a small business, teach other impoverished children how to code and definitely stay away from the world of big business. I’ve had my share.”

Yukimura laughed. “How humble of you.”

“It would be folly of me to push my luck and attempt for something bigger and more ambitious, that I did not aspire for in the first place.” said Inui, as he adjusted his glasses. “I will be content when my demand has be met and I no longer have to use my programme as a blackmailing device.”

The business leader looked skeptical and about to say more, but his phone rung again and he smirked as he picked it up. “Keigo?”

“I knew you’d accept it. Tell your PA to set up a meeting with me in two days time. We can sort out more details and contact our shareholders and inform them of the change.” ordered Yukimura. “This will work out. There is no need to worry, Keigo.” 

They seemed to exchange a few other comments, but Inui’s mind wasn’t on it anymore. They were on the route to Rikkai and Atobe Corp merging. All he had to do was keep an eye on it and make sure they went through with it. He was done with all of this. He hadn’t even had to use Kai and Kite’s methods of negotiation, which made him more relieved than he could even express. 

“If you don’t mind, Yukimura-san,” said Inui standing up, “I’ll be leaving now.”

Yukimura just nodded, as he was still in the phone call. 

“I would appreciate it if you would also ask Kite to stop blackmailing Hiyoshi. The boy’s jumpy enough, he doesn’t need more trouble.” said Inui, as he left. He knew that Yukimura would do something about it. 

The lift was quiet as usual as Inui took the lift down. To his surprise, however, he didn’t get taken to the first floor, as expected, but instead, he was deposited off on the 23rd floor. 

He was greeted by Renji as the doors opened. Renji’s face was ashen and Inui could only meet his gaze, with an alarmed look. He darted for the button to close the door quickly, but Renji had already stepped into the lift and looked tormented. 

“Sadaharu...” he said, trailing off, his fingers curled around a pair of earbuds that came from his pocket. Inui had never felt more trapped than at the moment. 

“Renji.” he said, a little despairingly. “You were listening.” 

“Yukimura told me about your phone call.” said Renji, matter-of-factly. “You never banned him from telling anyone about the deal. You forgot to.” 

Inui grinned nervously, but inwardly cursed. It had never occurred to him that Yukimura would have done that. He’d underestimated the business leader. Yukimura had given into Inui’s demands, but he’d hit Inui hard, dealt a personal blow. He was smart. 

Despite all of his dwelling upon the corruption that led to being at the top of the business world, he’d forgotten that Yukimura knew how to play dirty. A bittersweet victory for Inui. Now Renji knew the truth about his own part in this and he knew Renji’s part.

“Guess I did.” said Inui, softly. They’d both operated behind each other’s backs. 

Their eyes met. “I’m sorry.” said Renji, finally. “I shouldn’t have let Yukimura use you in his plan. I should have found another way.”

Inui shrugged. “Perhaps you should have.” he said, “But it’s done now. And it can’t be taken back.”

Renji’s eyes were sad. “Is this it, then?”

“Not unless you want it to be.” said Inui, with a shrug. At Renji’s confused look, Inui smiled weakly. “I lied too. In case you forgot that. And just blackmailed your best friend into doing something that could lead to world domination.” 

Renji just laughed. “Could. You know as well as I do, that there’s a 84.67% that Atobe and Yukimura will create a monopoly unconsciously.”

Inui smiled at him, hesitantly. “Is it...”

“We’ll forgive each other.” said Renji, firmly. “I heard your plan. A school of coding.”

Inui nodded. “So no one else has to learn to code themselves, and forget to not trust the compiler.” It had only been a month ago they’d been exchanging those quips. It felt like a eon. “I want to get away from big business. But I love coding. And I just found out how amazing I can be with my code.”

Renji smiled. “You were amazing before you knew it, Hakase.” He grabbed Inui’s hands in his.

Inui smiled as he looked down at them. “Thank you Kyouju. I only just realized it now. I’m not insignificant.”

“Nobody’s insignificant.” said Renji, looking a little confused. “Even a butterfly being in the wrong place can change the data, you know that.” 

Inui blinked, then laughed. He had been so caught up in his distress, he’d forgotten one of Renji’s main tenements about data. Don’t underestimate anybody.

Renji joined in. “How did you forget that, Sadaharu?” He shook his head. “No matter. I decided, once I heard that....that I want to join you. I love Seiichi, he’s my very best friend,. but he won’t need me anymore, once they merge. And....I think you’re going to need more than one teacher at that school of yours.” 

Inui paused and then smiled. “Thank you, Kyouju.” he said, with a warm smile, as the lift doors finally opened, and they stepped out to the main lobby.

“Goodbye Rikkai.” said Inui, as they stepped out of the doors. Renji didn’t even look back at the building. 

“Coming, Sadaharu?” he asked, without looking back as he crossed the street. 

Inui smirked. He hated to see Renji leave....but he’d be damned if he didn’t love to see him go. “Of course, Renji.” he said, coolly walked after him. 

-FIN


End file.
